Dance Party
by Iambeck
Summary: An alternate 13x23 - "Go enjoy your mac 'n cheese with the tiny humans. They're pretty great kids."


So, I wrote 3/4 of this before the episode aired, because I didn't have faith that they would show us Nathan meeting the kids. Low and behold, they didn't. So this is a one-shot, potentially maybe something more if I end up getting some muse together, that makes up for what we didn't get in the episode. In retrospect, this could have been shorter and I could have heavily cut things out, but I make no apologies because it could have been ten times worse.

* * *

 **Dance Party**

Nathan glanced down at his phone, checking the screen for a missed call or a text that would signal that the dinner Meredith had suggested had been called off. He hadn't held much hope for the plans to follow through, knowing Meredith's penchant for canceling last minute. It wasn't something he could fault her for, after all, she had been doing the moving on thing a lot less longer than he had, and he could never expect her to fake comfortability to spare his own feelings.

His last message was still the same from her: _6:00pm_.

He'd seen her off around three when she had to go and pick her daughter up from school, getting a brief low-down of what to expect that night and who he was going to be to her in front of the kids. They were taking it casually, and for now he was Mommy's friend at the hospital who worked with Aunt Maggie and Amelia, and a little with Uncle Alex. That made him a little more connected to their community, and as a 'friend' of aunts and uncles, a little less likely to be rejected. No grand gestures, no trying to win them over with gifts, just plain old Mommy has a friend who fixes hearts.

"What's got you so serious?" Arizona's voice filtered into the attending's lounge as she strolled past him at the table, where he was now staring at a pile of abandoned post-op notes, "dating should be fun and sexy… no, did she blow you off again?" she ran with her conversation in that airy, cheery way of hers that didn't let him get a word in edgeways.

"No, no - nothing like that," he adjusted himself in his seat so he could face her, deciding whether or not to admit that next step to her. He still hadn't told Meredith that he'd found some companionship in Arizona, or that they talked about his relationship with her, mainly because he hadn't quite figured out who Meredith and Arizona were to each other outside of backup babysitters. While their relationship was slowly flourishing, he didn't want to chance upsetting that steady advance by admitting he was talking to people about them. Meredith didn't seem like the one to talk about her relationship outside of her relationship. Maggie was a prime example.

"Did you have a fight?"

"No," he chuckled.

"Is it about Derek?" Arizona pushed, leaning against the counter as she sipped at her coffee.

"She wants me to go over for dinner with the kids," Nathan admitted, knowing that if he didn't confirm something soon he'd start a chain of false rumor that would surely get him into hot water like the cheating sensation had.

"She what?!" Arizona's mouth dropped open, immediately straightening up at the news, "sorry, that sounded _totally_ disbelieving, but who _are_ you and how did you get _Meredith Grey_ to fall for you?"

"I wouldn't say she's falling for me," Nathan responded with a shrug, not wanting to put a notion out there that Meredith hadn't even hinted at herself. He'd made that joke once upon a time, but now that things were getting a bit more serious he couldn't play around with that.

"Those kids are her _life_ ," Arizona emphasized, hand on her heart as she ambled over and took a seat across from him, barely aware of the magnitude she was building around the situation, "she would never let anyone into their lives who she didn't think deserved it…this is huge!"

"It's just Mac 'N Cheese," Nathan tried to tamp down the anxiety that Arizona's words were building in him, very much like the time she'd let him in on Derek's influence and the legendary love Meredith had for him.

"With her kids."

"She'll probably cancel, I don't know if she's really ready."

"What time are you going for dinner?" Arizona asked, a little more nonchalant.

Nathan looked down at his watch, "Six."

"And she hasn't canceled yet?"

"Not yet, but she's not the best at giving me much notice," he sighed, "and this is something I'll never push her on. Only when she's ready. I don't get a say in this."

"Do you think it's the right time?" Arizona softened, sensing his nervousness.

He'd wondered that himself. They were trying to be more to each other, little by little, building on that idea of being a couple and creating deeper layers of intimacy. For a while, Derek had been the main road-bump in their development, underneath all of the banter and the quips it was his memory that held Meredith from committing herself to him. She'd had to find some way to preserve his memory in the way that he had with Megan, a way that didn't dishonor him while still opening her heart up to something else. Now that she was ready, they'd taken a few more steps, had half sleep-overs at hers, gone public with her sisters and a few close friends, but the kids were her priority and without including them there would never be any other steps to take. The plunge had to come at some point.

"I'm playing it all through her," he admitted, "she's guarded, careful as she can be, so if she thinks it's time I'm not going to question that. We only talked about kids, Meg and I, had this whole grandiose idea of being parents to two point five kids and raising them all over the place. But things shifted, the universe had other plans and here I am at forty, nothing to show but an army record," he sighed, giving her a half-smile, "I like kids, they're uncomplicated, when they're upset they cry and let you know, there's no questionable morality, no inherent cruelness…they're the people you wish you could be when you come out of war."

Arizona softened then, a warm twinkle emanating from her blue eyes as she gave him that knowing smile. Her hand reached across the table and gently grabbed his, an act of comfort and solidarity.

"You're a good guy."

"I'm trying to be, for her."

"Derek didn't like army guys, but I feel like he would have liked you," she offered, the cadence of her voice so soft, "she's been through a lot, a whole lot more than I think this hospital remembers half the time…just, look out for her, okay?"

"She's pretty indestructible all by herself."

"That's Meredith Grey, resident legend," Arizona chuckled, drawing her hand back.

"Any move to make you and Eliza official?" Nathan probed, picking up his pile of post-op notes. Arizona was always so interested in those developments between him and Meredith that he barely remembered that she was going through her own drama in the hospital. Grey-Sloan had been heavy on the disparagement and often it was hard to find an ally in the tumult.

"One day," Arizona smiled brightly, "maybe when the dust has settled with the residents going for boards. There's still a lot of friction between everyone and we'd rather keep it for ourselves if it means more happiness."

"That's a good call. What did you say? Love is good?"

"Love is good," she nodded, watching him rise to his feet, "she hasn't canceled."

"No, she hasn't."

"So go enjoy your Mac 'n Cheese with the tiny humans. They're pretty great kids."

* * *

The Frat House. That's what he'd heard her call it one time in the attending's lounge. Karev and Shepherd had been pissing her off and he'd walked into a back and forth over drinking straight from the juice carton and putting empty cereal boxes back into the cupboard. He hadn't wanted to stick around for that tedium and had promptly filled his cup of coffee and high-tailed it out of there with Shepherd hot on his trail, begging to join his surgery so she had reason to pass the case she had with Meredith to Weller. That had been right around the time that he'd confronted her in the parking lot.

When he'd first turned up it had been the hardest clique to break; Meredith had been ride or die for Owen, dragging Pierce and Shepherd with her, and wherever Grey fell in her opinion, Karev wasn't far behind. He hadn't expected a bunch of city doctors to have the loyalty of his Jordan comrades and it had thrown him for a loop when he had been ostracized without even really knowing what dirty laundry Owen had disseminated about him. Hell, no one had even informed them that he had been hired, and right there the defense lines had been drawn and he was suddenly on the wrong side of a ten-blade alliance.

So, to be standing on the threshold of Meredith Grey's frat house with the door open in invitation, as she led him into the kitchen with a baby on the hip, felt like a dream he'd never see actualized.

Somehow, she had become his brand new version of the big stuff.

The apprehension fell away as he took her in, barefoot and casual, baby draped over her as she pottered around the stove, lifting lids a little erratically. He couldn't help the smile that settled at the corners of his mouth. He hadn't really been exposed to the mom side of her, only ever passing her in the hall when the baby went to daycare, or on an odd morning when she brought her to the attending's lounge before dropping her off. She looked so at ease in a way he'd never seen her before.

"You didn't have to do that," Meredith softened as he laid the decorated cupcakes he'd gotten from a local bakery on the kitchen counter, followed by the wine.

"I know," he responded with a shrug, "but I figured I'd use them for bribery if things went south."

"They won't hate you."

"See, not very convincing," he wagged a finger at her, "you hated me."

"I only hated you for Owen's sake," she explained distractedly, snatching the dish towel she was using to reach for a pot lid away from the burner, "and you came in and peed all over the place."

"I did what?" he scoffed at that oh-so unfiltered manner of hers.

"You mellowed out," she placated him, glancing over her shoulder to give him a smirk, "it's always the same with you lot. All pumped up from war, head still wherever you left…Owen took a long time to readjust. If you think we hated you, you should have seen Lexie when he stabbed a pig."

"I'm not even going to ask."

She giggled.

He sometimes forgot that Owen had lived this whole life around and in Meredith's life. Usually, he was the one dishing out the dirt on his quasi-brother, but they'd been distanced for so long that sometimes he felt like he didn't seem to know him at all anymore. It was something Evelyn would shame them for.

He could feel eyes on him as he obeyed Meredith's order to grab cutlery from the drawer, looking up to find his senses had been right. You could take the man out of the army, but there would always be a piece of him that lived out there whether he liked it or not. His sixth-sense was irrevocably heightened.

"Hi," Ellis curled her chubby fingers at him, her blue eyes peeking over her mother's shoulder.

Nathan would have been a liar if he didn't admit that his heart melted a little, seeing the mini carbon-copy of Meredith in her. Meredith had shown him pictures of her kids, let him in on the little details of who they were and what made them tick. Ellis was her little lover, she'd said, her village baby who loved the chaos of noisy siblings and aunts and uncles, probably the most adjusted of the lot. _She falls asleep anywhere, smiles for anyone and she has no rhythm but she dances anyway._

Meredith turned around with her, a warm smile replacing the stonier, nervous look she'd barely been able to hide back at the hospital.

"Hi, Darlin'," he waved back, smiling.

"Can you say 'Hi, Nathan?'" Meredith encouraged, hitching the toddler higher onto her hip as she fostered the youngster's welcoming behavior.

"Hi 'fan," she parroted, barely a second later, kicking her feet in glee.

"Good Girl," Meredith pressed a kiss to her temple, then looked up at him, "the others are in the playroom, they know you're coming."

"Any trouble?"

"Just questions, mostly Zola," she told him, offering him a shrug, "dinner's almost ready, we should probably see if they hate you before we eat?"

"Lead the way," Nathan offered, adopting her trademark eye-roll.

"Mama, 'fan," Ellis pointed as she walked past him, quickly turning her head so she could keep an eye on him as Meredith walked across the hall. He gave her another wave and she broke out into a beaming smile.

Meredith huffed out a laugh at the charm Ellis was laying on thick.

"When did you get so weak at the knees, huh?" she pressed her lips to the baby's crown.

"Takes after her mother, obviously."

"Watch your mouth."

"I guess I'll just have to stop being 'all that'," Nathan returned, loving the way she side-eyed him.

The apprehension returned in a muted wave as they neared the play room. It was one thing to meet the little one who couldn't tell him what she really thought of him, but it was another to then be faced with actual little people who hadn't yet learned the art of sugar-coating.

"Zozo, Bailey, Mommy's friend is here can you…" she trailed off, halting in the doorway and causing him to catch his footing at the abruptness of it all, "what the heck, guys?!"

"Bailey wanted to do it!"

"Nuh-uh, Mama, it was Zola's idea!"

He hadn't known what the fuss was all about until he found himself walking behind her into the play room, clothes strewn all over the floor and two kids stood guiltily in the middle.

"Bailey, your face," Meredith groaned, grabbing him by the chin to inspect the burgundy paint job, "is that Mommy's lipstick?"

"No-" Bailey went to respond, but was winded by his sister elbowing him, "ow, Zola - dat hurt."

"Who's is the lipstick?" Meredith's voice turned stern, weakening the twosome's little pact.

"Aunt Maggie's," Zola mumbled.

"Oh god."

"We were playing Anna and Elsa!" Bailey tried to defend the situation.

"I can see that," Meredith tried to keep her mom face on, trying not to completely break down in laughter at the sight of her son in Zola's princess dress, lipstick and guilt smeared all over his face, "but Mommy told you we were having dinner with Nathan tonight - that's why we got changed. I left you both alone for _five minutes,_ where did you even get the time… you know what, never mind, but Bailey you need to come with Mommy and wipe your face," she ordered, turning to Nathan then and proffering Ellis up to him, "take this one, she likes you. I need to find make-up remover."

He could tell she was still a little rattled from nerves, because she raced up the stairs mumbling something about kids and backs turned, without even realizing she'd left them all in his care. He felt a little out of his depth as Bailey and Zola looked over at him, silence hanging between them. He had a hard time trying not to laugh at Meredith's son and the apparent make-over his older sister had taken upon herself to give him, but he held off in fear of upsetting either one.

"Nice dress, Mate," he offered up instead.

"It's mine, I'm just letting him borrow it," Zola stepped up first, wariness written all over her face, "are you Mommy's friend that fixes hearts?"

"That's me," Nathan nodded, feeling Ellis lay against his shoulder as Zola kept a tight curiosity over him, "I'm Nathan. I work with your Aunt Maggie."

"And Mommy," Zola added, quick as a whip.

"Yes, and Mommy."

"Then how come we've never met you?" Zola pushed.

 _Zola's not afraid to ask questions,_ Meredith had warned him.

"Well, what did Mommy tell you?" Nathan tried to change the subject, seeing if this was a topic Meredith had already broached with them.

"She said that you were in the army with Uncle Owen and that you're new here. That's why we haven't met you."

"Then your Mommy is right," he affirmed, feeling Ellis reach up to smooth a hand through his hair, "do you guys know where New Zealand is?"

Both of the kids shook their heads.

"It's pretty far away, I lived there for a while."

"Is that why your voice is funny?"

He laughed a little at that.

"I guess so," he told the little girl.

Zola seemed somewhat appeased by his answer.

"Aunt Maggie says that your heart is the size of your fist," Zola scrunched up hers and showed him, eager to impress him with her cardio knowledge. He could see Bailey scrunching his beside his sister, following the conversation even though he had gotten a little shy, "Bailey's is littler than mine."

"Is not!"

"Is too! See?" Zola bunched hers up next to his for comparison, sending him into a little mood.

"Everyone is different," Nathan came to rescue the situation, rolling his fingers into a fist to show them the difference, "see, as you get older everyone's changes sizes. Usually, boys hearts are bigger than girls, and when you're a kid it's smaller than when you're a grown up."

"I wanna see," Zola pushed forward, and he had to crouch to compare their heart fists, "you've got a big heart - Bailey, come here and see!"

Nathan looked over at the boy, who seemed a bit hesitant. Meredith had called him her thinker. It made him a little less open than his extroverted sisters, but that's what made Meredith feel so connected to him. He'd gotten that from her. He was her baby born from spirit. _We don't like conflict, never have. But once you get to know him, once he lets you in, you'll learn his compassion is limitless._

"Look!" Zola urged as Bailey finally chanced a few steps, and gently popped a fist to complete the heart comparison, "they're all different."

"Do you know what else makes girls and boys hearts different?" Nathan looked between them, earning a shake of the head from Zola, "how about you Bailey?" he shook his head too, "well, if your heart is a boy's heart it usually beats a little bit slower than a girl's heart."

"Mine's slower?"

"It doesn't really mean anything," Nathan promised, "just like you have shorter hair than your sister, it doesn't change who you are or what you can do."

"What's going on here?" Meredith's voice filtered into the room, causing all four of them to turn their heads. He gave her a little wink as Zola urged her to come and complete the fold, showing her what she'd learned about hearts in the few moments she'd been gone.

He caught Meredith smiling at him while they crouched down in their haphazard circle, fists all mashed together. She looked like the nerves had been wiped right from her, and that sparkly eye thing he loved so goddamn much was back. If it weren't for the three kids settled right there, he would have kissed her then.

"What's that smell?" Nathan was distracted as a wave of burning wafted into the room.

"Mommy, you're burning something again!" Zola burst out, prompting Meredith to shove herself to her feet and race through to the kitchen in record speed.

"Mommy always does that," Zola turned to Nathan then, in such a nonjudgmental way that he couldn't help but to burst out laughing.

"Oh no!" Meredith groaned across the hall.

The two older kids shared one knowing glance before he understood what it meant.

"Pizza!" they screamed in unison.

"'sa!" Ellis added her own enthusiastic grunt from his hip.

"Guys, dinner's ruined. What does everyone think about pizza?" Meredith walked back in and tried to pass it off nonchalantly.

He raised his brow at her.

"Shut up," Meredith gave him that trademark Grey glare as he tried to bite back another laugh.

The dinner that was supposed to be a round of booster seats, a high-chair and them around the table ended up becoming a pizza floor party in the living room in front of a Minions movie. The kids seemed to love his overdramatic reactions throughout the movie so he kept it up, eventually overhearing Zola whisper to her mother "Mommy, he's funny."

Things hadn't really been as difficult as he'd imagined.

Once Ellis was passed out in a food coma and Meredith stripped to her diaper from her pizza sauce-drowned onesie, he collected the dishes with her and helped to take them to the kitchen. He had barely put them on the counter when he felt her grab his arm and drag him through to the laundry room, crashing them against the wall as she bruised their lips together. Her hands dragged through his hair, pulling taught.

"The kids are right there."

"I know, I'm not mounting you right now," she defended.

"You sure?" he smirked into her kiss, as his hands slipped from her waist to her ass.

"I can't help it, you're turning me on."

"What with? Dramatic reactions to a movie full of yellow blobs turns you on?"

"Are you _trying_ to ruin the moment?" Meredith pulled away slightly, looking up at him with that quirk of her brow.

"Good point," he murmured, switching their positions so she was pressed up against the wall, bare brick threading her sweater, "I missed you."

"I missed you too," she admitted, lips coming to brush against his.

He drank her in then, melting into a slow dance rhythm, a pace they rarely took when it came to their intimacy. She drew him in effortlessly, magnetizing every fiber until he was flush against her.

"No meltdowns," she breathed against his lips, a sense of relief coating her words as he felt her curl into him, arms looping around his neck while he drew her into an enveloping hug.

"No meltdowns," he echoed.

They were only granted a minute of alone time before noise was blaring from the living room, startling them both at the sudden volume. Meredith gave him a look of concern before side-stepping him and marching back to the kids, who were most likely up to no good.

"Guys! What's with the noise?"

If the first time he'd met them had been comical, this had to be on another spectrum. He waltzed in to find the three kids all at different stages of completely imagined dance routines, twirling and throwing their limbs around to the music of the DVD's background credits. Bailey still adorned in his blue princess dress, Zola now in her butterfly wings and Ellis half-nakedly bopping with bent knees, sippy cup hanging from one hand. For a bunch of little ones who were first shy upon meeting, he hadn't expected to see them so carefree.

"Dance party, Mama!" Bailey cried.

He glanced over at Meredith, who looked a little taken aback.

"Dance, Mommy!" Zola shouted breathlessly.

"'ans, Mama!"

"You know, just when you think you've failed somewhere in parenting…" Meredith mused, before bending down and reaching for the bopping baby, "when someone calls a dance party you have to dance. Those are the rules," Meredith turned to him as she joined the fray, jiggling the baby on her hip and filling the room with a flurry of giggles.

"You have to dance, Nathan!" Zola called over to him.

"It's da rules!" Bailey huffed out, jumping on the spot.

Their invitation was enough. As he tripped over he could barely fathom that the night would go from a place of complete uncertainty to dancing together with reckless abandon, a whirl of wings and dresses and sippy cups. If he had an idea of how the night was going to turn out, this definitely wasn't it. He laughed harder than he had in a long time.

Meredith allowed one repeat of the song before calling bedtime, earning a few groans and huffs from the older two. Ellis gave him a final, weary wave over Meredith's shoulder as she led the trail up the staircase, and he was about to go and begin on the dishes when he felt someone tug at his pant's leg.

"What's up, Darlin'?" Nathan furrowed his brow, crouching so he could meet Zola face to face.

"I forgot to tell you that's my secret," she whispered, clutching a stuffed lion close.

"What secret?" he asked, a little confused.

"If you are Mommy's friend and she's feelin' weird, the secret is dance party," she explained quickly, Meredith voice calling her from upstairs, "bye, Nathan!"

She stopped to wave at him once more on the staircase before tripping back upstairs, leaving him a little struck. Meredith had told him that Zola was an old soul, the little baby who had come into her life at just the right time and taught her everything she knew about unconditional love. _We did it together. She's super resilient, strongest kid I know. You call me indestructible but she's better than me, she faces things head on._

He'd never believe her more than in that moment.

Whether she was letting him in on the fact that she knew something else, or whether she was just being the outspoken little girl she was, he would never know, but he walked into the kitchen feeling a sense of warmth and relief that he hadn't expected to feel after all was said and done.

He did the dishes while he waited, taking a second to glance around at all the small detail that made up her home. He hadn't known what to expect from Meredith Grey, Queen of sass and snark. Their relationship had started out so rockily that it had been hard to imagine her outside the confines of the ice cave he'd put her in inside his head.

The yellow had surprised him.

While he'd been slowly exposed to little facets of her at work, the quirks of her surgical preferences that didn't quite make sense to him, this was all unfamiliar territory. Sippy cups and high-chairs, framed scalpels on the walls and six different kinds of cereal. It was an eclectic mix of dorm meets Martha Stewart. He couldn't help but smile to himself as he scanned the fridge, littered with finger paintings and depictions of Mommy, interspersed with a few of Pierce, Karev, and Shepherd, all wielding stethoscopes and scrub caps.

"This used to be called the Frat House back when we were interns," Meredith's voice startled him, as her cheek came to rest against the back of his shoulder, telling him that little bit of information he already knew, "when it was my Mother's it was so empty, nothing felt lived in or touched… so when I took it over as an intern I pretty much let anyone and everyone move in…I don't think it's been empty since. You shouldn't feel nervous about being here."

"What give you that impression?" he turned to her then, leaning his shoulder against the fridge. He didn't necessarily want her to know that he was nervous, just like that moment in the MRI room when he'd taken the leap to tell her how he'd come to liking her, and he'd put that pretty mildly if he was being honest with himself. He knew if he told her how crazy she really made him, he'd never hear the end of it…and he wasn't too sure if she was ready to hear that from him yet. He'd been letting her make all of the moves, she knew where he stood, and every now and then he'd add a little bit of a push, but he let her take the reigns for the most part.

"Callie once made this joke about how we were all related through sex, like the whole hospital has this weird incestuous vibe because we run in small circles…if you knew how many people have lived in this house - I used to call it a brothel."

"So who was in your circle then?" he teased, leaning into her with a sly smirk, "Karev?"

"Ugh," Meredith balked, pretty emphatically too, which alleviated a secret weight he'd held on his shoulders, "why are people so obsessed with that theory? I've heard the nurses bitching about it too, and Wilson freaks out at me every few months…anyway, no…mine were just Derek and George."

"George?"

"He's dead. Hit by a bus."

"Of course he was," Nathan tried not to laugh at her deadpan response, but Meredith's own giggle teased one from him.

"What I'm trying to say is, it might seem like a lot to walk into, but everyone's been here in some way or another and I know all of their crap. Sometimes I don't know who's coming and who's going, they're all strays, but there are some constants, the kids, me…and whoever chooses to fall into place. It's home, you know?"

"And my kids…they fight each other, poke fingers in each others' eyes…sometimes they boycott sleep, or puke all over me and crawl into my bed, the other day I spent an hour scrubbing Ellis when she got hold of a sharpie, and Bailey got his head stuck in the staircase so we had to saw him out…but they're the reason I'm here at all. Things aren't always going to be as easy as tonight, so you should know that…I can't even go to the bathroom without finding someone's fingers under the door or someone asking questions on the other side. I can barely manage my time and I already have a lot going on, but they like you," she shrugged, her smile growing, "which means that it's okay for me to like you in front of them. Someday."

He couldn't help that he was just staring, the stupidest grin on his face as she looked up at him with those eyes that were doing the thing he loved. He could see why they all gravitated towards her, while in the beginning, he didn't have the slightest clue why he could see it in her then. That roughened exterior was just a facade to cover up the fact that she was the calm in the center of the storm, whether it be her own, or someone else's. Maybe that's how she'd drawn him in after all. He'd been the one to tease her with the sun and the moon jest, but now he wondered if she'd really been right all along.

He took the chance this time.

Primal instinct reigned as he married her lips with his, guiding her to the nearest counter so he could blindly lift her to an easier height. His hands curled around her hips as she used her hands to cup his face and guide their hurried, hungry movements. He'd wanted to do this all day. He'd felt like a man starved since Maggie had found out about them, and after Sioux Falls, she'd invaded every free thought with those intimate little details he'd learned about her since tumbling into her car that night.

He pulled her closer, her legs wrapping around him to bring that heated friction as he ground against her. His hands slipped under her shirt, finding purchase on her bare skin as his fingertips trailed up and around her waist, goosing her skin with his touch. Sometimes he could barely believe that this was his life now. All wrapped up in Meredith Grey, a formidable general surgeon who just so happened to have slipped into the same frequency of loss, both stumbling forward, trying to leave their ghosts behind them.

He still asked that question - why her? Even now, when it felt completely redundant in the face of everything they'd gone through, she still gave him reason. Time and time again he found himself being drawn in by another parallel, charmed by the magic of their kismet circumstances, knowing that she was riding that same wave that would resound the rest of their lives. That's all he'd really ever been looking for since Megan. A sobering dose of understanding. He hadn't known that's what he needed until Meredith had woven herself into his life, or him hers. Both from different war-zones, yet leaving with the same scars. His emotional reserves had been depleted for so long, tamped down by whiskey and war, and now he remembered what something like this felt like.

She gave him new life. Something else.

"I wanna do it in the laundry room," Meredith's breathy whisper broke through the haze, and he could feel himself smile against her as she slipped off the counter and grazed his front, tightening the constriction in his pants to an almost painful level. He almost laughed at the absurdity of her power over him. Taking him from that place of tepid nervousness to abandoning all reservation and almost ravishing her there on the kitchen counter top where Karev and Shepherd probably ate their breakfast.

"Were you trying to tell me something earlier?" he smirked down at her, as she grabbed for his buckle and pulled him with her.

"Hmm?" she tried to act coy, but he knew better. She was one to hold on the moment and made sure he delivered later. Once she had an idea in mind it wasn't long before they were making it happen, someplace, somewhere. They'd already had a close call in the hospital when he'd paraded around with her medical ID hanging from his lab coat.

She was about to shove him into the laundry room again when the sound of the front door creaking jarred them apart.

She looked at him, confused. They hadn't expected the sisters to be home earlier than midnight and Karev was out of town doing something stupid, or so Meredith had told him.

"Mer?"

"Amelia?"

There was a momentary pause until Amelia entered the kitchen, a figure trailing her.

"Owen?" Meredith questioned.

"Should I say my own name to complete the group?" Nathan tried to infuse some comedy, but it fell flat, especially when Owen snapped his head up at his voice.

"What're _you_ doing here?" he grit out, turning to Meredith for an answer.

While Nathan had promised to burden the responsibility of telling Owen about his relationship with Meredith, he hadn't quite expected to have to come clean in the middle of her kitchen.

"Nice to see you too, Mate."

"Are the kids in bed?" Amelia asked Meredith, her tone somber.

"Uh...yeah, they went down a few minutes ago, why? What's going on?"

"You guys might want to sit down."

* * *

So, it is what it is. This gave me the biggest writer's block and I'm glad it's over. Hope you enjoyed the fluffiness of it all.


End file.
